1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates generally to an apparatus and method for configuring computer based training equipment associated with a physiological monitoring product and the physiological monitoring product itself. In particular the invention relates to a method that queries a user with questions to configure the physiological monitoring product, wherein the method provides a data structure that is used to configure the physiological monitoring product and the computer based training equipment.
2. Discussion of the Related Art
Vendors in the medical electronics area have historically delivered training to customers by instructor-led courses for the medical electronics product. Other training devices have included self-paced workbooks, and audio and video based training media. However, each of these training mechanisms has received mixed acceptance and has mixed effectiveness.
In the health-care industry, computer based training is not frequently used, and even when it is used, the training is generic and is not adaptable to a particular environment where the medical electronics product may be used or to a particular configuration of the medical electronics product. In other words, computer based training has historically had the drawback of having relatively fixed, generic lessons. Accordingly, the instructor-based methodology for training, where the instructor adapts his or her presentation to accommodate the specific configurations of the medical electronics product and the environment in order to demonstrate the medical electronics product and train the user on the medical electronics product, has been a much more widely accepted method for training. However, some drawbacks of instructor-based training are that it is expensive for the customer and doesn't offer the flexibility for accommodating hospital schedules and staffing paterns.
Some additional disadvantages of the existing methodologies for configuring a medical electronics product and customer training on the product are, for example, that the customer, when configuring the product, may have insufficient information to make appropriate decisions as to which product setting to select, and thus the product may be configured incorrectly. Also, as discussed above, the computer based training methodology is not adaptable to the different configuration options that are available for the medical electronics product and therefore does not provide adequate training for the different configuration options. Thus, the existing methodologies may be expensive, may lead to incorrect customer-made configuration choices on the product and may result in inadequate training of the users of the product.